Tags: art

It was yet another busy fall at Freshkills Park this year, with a number of park developments, programs, and events serving as a reminder of the radical transformation that continues to occur at what was once the world’s largest landfill.

Discovery Day

On September 15^th, over one thousand visitors flocked to Freshkills for its annual Discovery Day, in which several hundred acres were open for hands-on arts and STEM activities, kite-flying, biking, and free exploration.

Since its inception, the Freshkills Park team has fostered partnerships with artists from a variety of disciplines in an effort to document this preliminary phase of park development through creative expression. Over time, a number of works have emerged, ranging from ink studies produced within the confines of an old shipping container to bound notebooks created from the park’s ubiquitous invasive Phragmites plant.

Fastnet: Plein-Air Drawing at Freshkills Park is an exhibition of plein-air drawings and ink studies of Freshkills Park that were produced through a series of workshops held within a 20-foot shipping container called Fastnet. The exhibition will be on display at the Arsenal Galley in Central Park from September 13th – November 14th. 

Discover Freshkills Park and experience the unique landscape and spectacular views the landfill-to-park project has to offer. This free event is a special opportunity to explore the future park while the site is closed to the public. Hundreds of acres and miles of trails will be open for tours, bicycling, and activities for all ages.

Christian Prince is the Freshkills Park Art Program Intern for the summer of 2019. He is from Washington, DC and graduated from Vassar College.

What are you working on, and why do you think it’s interesting/important?

I’m assisting in the development of arts programs including installations in the park and working on materials for exhibitions at the Studio + Gallery.

Beautiful sunny weather and clear blue skies provided the perfect conditions to welcome visitors to Freshkills Park on June 30 for the first ever Open Hours. As construction continues in North Park Phase One, this event allowed hundreds of visitors the chance to see the rolling hills and diverse wildlife of Freshkills for themselves before the park can officially open.

This year, artists are leading drawing workshops inside a shipping container at Freshkills Park. Fastnet was purchased by artist James Powers in 2015. Since then, it has been used as a gallery, sauna, and gathering space. At Freshkills Park, Fastnet is fitted with drawing horses for free observational drawing workshops, available for the general public!

On November 18, Field R/D artist Lize Mogel led two bus tours of the park project. The tours expanded and resituated the typical park tour by offering an artist/ “counter-cartographer’s” perspective. Joined by guides Dr. Cait Field, the Freshkills Park Manager for Science and Research Development, and Mariel Villere, Manager for Programs, Arts and Grants and co-organizer of Field R/D, Lize’s tour explored the landfill-to-park project within a longer trajectory of a changing urban environment.

Dylan Gauthier co-curates Freshkills Park’s Field R/D residency program with Manager for Programs, Arts, and Grants Mariel Villeré. For the past decade or so, Gauthier has been making environmental work around water, including his collective Mare Liberum and What Wilderness, focused on the EPA Superfund designated Newtown Creek.

Compelled by alternative functions, artist Bill Jenkins’ practice reconstitutes utilitarian objects and places. In the exhibition Image/Conduit, currently on view at the Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery, he investigates this curiosity through the topography of Freshkills Park.

The exhibition features video work titled Scans, investigating the relationship between decades of compressed garbage placed at Fresh Kills with the picturesque grassy hills that compose the landscape of Freshkills Park.

Work by several artists will be installed and realized at Freshkills Park this summer as part of the art-research project Field R/D. This phase of the expansive and collaborative project is made possible thanks to a Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation Art and Social Justice Initiative grant award.

What better way to explore Freshkills Park than with an artist-led drawing workshop in a shipping container?

Freshkills Park is currently home to Fastnet, a shipping container converted into a studio and project space. The container was purchased by artist James Powers in 2015.

This summer, Freshkills Park is offering creative workshops about plants at the Greenbelt Nature Center. Using art as a platform, these workshops will engage participants in exploring the importance of native plants, as well as the relationships between native and invasive plants, in relation to the Freshkills Park project.

This spring, students from Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School are visiting Freshkills Park for outdoor observational drawing workshops in Fastnet, a shipping container converted into a studio and project space. Artist James Powers purchased Fastnet in the fall of 2015. Here he reflects on “the thrill of drawing outside” and how he learned to think of the landscape “as an extension of the studio.” The inaugural program was designed and executed in collaboration with artist Rita Leduc.

This spring, Freshkills Park will be home to a shipping container converted into a studio and project space. The container, known as Fastnet, will be fitted with desks and chairs to accommodate outdoor observational drawing workshops, primarily for high school students.

This month, artists Stefani Bardin and Assaf Tamir are offering workshops as part of their exhibition, the Fantastic Voyage. The immersive installation at the Freshkills Park Studio + Gallery explores the role of food production in our personal health and the health of the environment.

Earlier this month, Freshkills Park returned to the annual NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) New York Art Fair as a cultural partner alongside over 100 other exhibitors hailing from 19 countries. The fair, held March 8-11, brought together emerging galleries, artists, and projects at Skylight Clarkson Square in West SoHo.

“The Fantastic Voyage”
On view January 21 – June 8, 2018
2240 Richmond Avenue, Staten Island, NY

Stefani Bardin and Assaf Tamir’s “The Fantastic Voyage” is an immersive installation exploring the role of food production in our personal health and the health of the environment.

In November of 2017, Freshkills Park celebrated the groundbreaking at North Park. The event signaled the start of construction on the 21-acre project, which will be the first section inside the Fresh Kills Landfill boundaries to become public parkland. This milestone was possible thanks in part to the growing community that is engaging with the project and participating in scheduled programs. 

It’s Happening! Celebrating 50 Years of Public Art in NYC Parks, took place in Central Park on October 21^st. Included among the more than 100 artworks, performances, and workshops was FieldWork. FieldWork is a choreographed performance by artist Nancy Nowacek, a Freshkills Park Field R/D artist, in collaboration with Morgan Hille-Refakis.